Iranian supply
March 13, 2024 • 9:38 a.m. ET
To result in significant change in Iran, Khamenei should die
Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei mentioned, “These weren’t my phrases, however God’s phrases.” He drew a semicircle along with his left hand, encrusted with an agate ring, connecting heaven and the viewers. With crises at each nook, Khamenei grasped on the divine straw. “It was God talking.” [through me]”
On December 31, 2023, Khamenei met with the household of Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) Quds Force commander Qassem Soleimani, a spy chief who was killed in a US drone strike 4 years in the past. He declared his connection to God. In Iraq. The supreme chief retold what he described as a “fierce and catchy speech” he gave 20 years in the past.
The remark shocked Iran. The Islamic Republic has at all times portrayed Khamenei because the “executor of God’s instructions” and the “chief of the world’s Muslims.” However, this was the primary time {that a} supreme chief claimed to be the “tongue” of God and delivered what may solely be described as revelation and prophecy. Critics described the feedback as Khamenei-like.declare To change into a god. ”
Khamenei’s claims had been so outlandish that state media needed to rush in and weave an online of propaganda disguised as theology to justify the commentary. This initiative was carried out by Fars News Agency, an affiliate of the Revolutionary Guards, in an editorial entitled “The Monotheistic Basis of ‘My Tongue, But the Word of God'” by Ali Reza Molla-Ahmadi, a cleric affiliated with Iran’s Revolutionary Guards. It went as far as to publish. Supreme chief.
However, Khamenei didn’t attain this turning level in a single day. When the Islamic Republic’s founder, Ruhollah Khomeini, died in 1989, 10 years after the revolution, he was not Iran’s high political or spiritual determine, and even an ayatollah. However, he ascended to the clerical throne by means of a conspiratorial political maneuver facilitated by his then ally and later nemesis, former President Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani.
In 2019, Khamenei warned “younger individuals and elders” that the “enemy” was sending brokers to “infiltrate” the holy metropolis of Qom in central Iran. Qom, together with Iraq’s Najaf, is the Shiite equal of Vatican City. world. (Qom is a significant spiritual bastion within the Islamic Republic, together with the northeastern metropolis of Mashhad, the place the eighth Shiite saint, Imam Reza, is buried.) Calls for “revolutionary cleaning” and non secular areas Even the sycophantic clergy agree. He has been near Ayatollah Khamenei for a few years. In addition to “cleaning” spiritual areas, Khamenei and the Islamic Republic’s propaganda machine have waged a tireless marketing campaign so as to add a halo to his picture.
Despite all these efforts, a current survey carried out by the Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance exhibits that Iranians are more and more distancing themselves from faith and non secular teams, opposing the obligatory hijab, and growing their help for secularism. It grew to become clear that All these modifications are evident within the recurrent and more and more frequent protests towards the clerical regime, particularly within the 2022 Women, Life and Freedom rebellion.
Gambler Khamenei
Under regular circumstances, if somebody of their 80s claimed that God spoke by means of them, there could be considerations about their psychological well being. But in Khamenei’s case, the sycophants who flock to his internal circle not solely help him but in addition justify his phrases.
As supreme chief, the aged Ayatollah has last say on all issues of Iran’s safety and coverage. He is the supreme commander of the armed forces, and in addition beneath Khamenei’s direct orders, controls all navy positions, together with key positions within the elite Revolutionary Guards, which export terror all over the world and suppress protests at residence. Appoints supreme navy commander.
In truth, he oversees and controls the Islamic Republic’s overseas coverage, nuclear actions, and navy operations. It is he who decides who can run for workplace and the way the vote ought to be designed, as evidenced by the March 1 elections led by hardliners as a part of the Islamic Revolution 2.0 program. The Ayatollah’s obsession with absolute management extends to setting a 2,000 km cap on the vary of the nation’s ballistic missiles, a call that in most international locations is made by strategists and generals. (This cap would put the United States out of vary, however would permit the Iranian authorities to assault a lot of the Middle East, together with U.S. navy services within the area and Israel.)
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In 2020, after the US killed Soleimani in Iraq, Khamenei vowed “extreme revenge”. Just a few days later, the Revolutionary Guards attacked a U.S. navy base in Iraq in retaliation, however the base had already been evacuated. This was a present of pressure by the Iranian authorities to fulfill Khamenei’s fanatic help base with out inflicting any casualties, however greater than 100 American troopers suffered mind accidents.
This was not the primary time that Khamenei induced pressure inside moments of an explosion. He used the identical strategy for Iran’s nuclear program, placing the Islamic Republic on monitor for direct battle with the West, then pivoting within the title of “heroic flexibility” and solely going nuclear in 2015. The settlement was confirmed. At a time when Iran was collapsing beneath sanctions and the shadow of warfare loomed massive on the horizon.
sanctified insanity
Khamenei is overconfident that God will intervene on his behalf and has change into more and more brazen. He as soon as once more put the Islamic Republic on monitor to amass nuclear weapons, warning world powers in June 2023 that if the Islamic Republic needed to construct nuclear weapons, they “could not cease it.” The Islamic Republic is ramping up manufacturing of extremely enriched uranium, and Iran’s former nuclear chief Ali Akbar Salehi boasted in February that the Iranian regime had “all of the elements” wanted to make a bomb.
Regarding inside modifications, Khamenei solely authorized of “reforms” that might enhance the effectiveness of the regime’s repression, strengthen its propaganda, develop its monetary sources, scale back divisions throughout the regime, and curb inside and exterior threats. Furthermore, his response to public dissent and calls for for the democratization of energy and the conclusion of human rights has been constant all through the practically 40 years of his rule. “Mow it down like a weed,” he’s mentioned to have mentioned, referring to his dissent.
For a long time, Khamenei has weaved an elaborate net through which he sits on the middle and controls all of Iran’s energy constructions. His eventual loss of life would disrupt this complicated net, creating an influence vacuum and pitting the Islamic Republic’s numerous factions with competing pursuits towards one another, particularly the higher echelons of the Revolutionary Guards. This turning level will present the individuals of Iran and the diaspora with a historic alternative to radically remodel the nation. Preparations to your huge day ought to begin right now. Petty infighting among the many Iranian diaspora should change into a factor of the previous, and alliances with Iranians and the worldwide group have to be constructed for that day of constancy. With that in thoughts, one factor is for certain: Khamenei should die to result in significant change in Iran.
Khosro Saye Isfahani is an advocate, journalist, and web researcher with a few years of expertise working in Iran, together with work associated to the LGBTQI group.
References
Image: Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei and senior Islamic Republic officers (Khamenei) attend the funeral of Qassem Soleimani, commander of the Quds Force, in Tehran on January 6, 2020.